Huntingdonshire Music School Association

Don’t be a Vegetable - Keep Regular: An Event Shared is an Event Enjoyed

Dear Diary, sat at home today watching the paint blister on the outside porch. I wonder where the rain-water’s going…. perhaps watching the mould grow might add excitement….... I could count the bricks on the side of the garage later ...

If you want more excitement than betting on rain drops (or pooh sticks- a game, not a medical condition ) you’ve really got to get out more.

There’s no point in complaining that you "don’t know what’s going on" or "no-one ever tells me.." when you could subscribe to the music college online calendars and stimulate the grey stuff (not the mould) with live music.

Our musical director, a cross between Victor Borge and Tigger,says that anything with a pulse is good for you - and he’s not a vegetarian.[ Both will keep you regular, though - groan. ]

I do hope that he was talking about music ... oh, dear!

Overview

We have created and maintain 2 online calendars:-

• HUMS - calendar for the Huntingdonshire Music School. Terms times,concerts, exams, socials etc.
• External Events - music events accessible to all in and around Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire etc.

This has been done using the iCalendar format so that you can subscribe to the calendar(s) and will then be guaranteed the latest up to date information on your computer without having to enter anything. Any changes we make are automatically picked up by all the subscribers to our calendars.

Often there will be web pages associated with an event. Using one of these applications you can double-click on an event in the calendar and then on the web page address shown (URL) which will take you to a page providing more information.

To subscribe to our calendars you need one of the following software applications:-

• Thunderbird news/email application (Windows, Linux, Mac)
• Sunbird stand-alone calendar application (Windows, Linux, Mac)
• iCal stand-alone calendar application (Mac only)

All of these are free and can be downloaded and installed easily.

The instructions show you how to install and subscribe to our calendars together with one showing UK holidays.

The 2 basic steps are:-

1. install an application that will download and update a shareable calendar (iCalendar format)
2. get (subscribe to) one or more calendars

Thereafter, when you have the application running and it is connected to the Internet, it will check and update the calendars that you’ve loaded.

Step 1 - Installing an iCalendar-aware Application

Installing Thunderbird E-mail Application and the Lightning Calendar Add-On

• Download the Thunderbird mail application fromhttp://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
• Install
• Start Thunderbird up.
• Go to the Download/Install Lightning Calendar download page at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
• Download the version of Calendar for the Thunderbird for your computing platform (Windows /Linux /Mac)
  • If you right-mouse click on the download link you can choose where to save it - save it on your desktop.
  • the browser will ask you if you want to allow this - you need to say ‘yes’.
• After completion start the Thunderbird application and select theTools | Add-Ons (or the Tools| Extensions on the Mac version) menu item.
• Click on the Install button and point the Install file dialogue at the Lightning add-on you downloaded at step 5 (file ending with .api - should be on your desktop if you followed our advice;-) )
• Click on the Open button
• Click on the Install Now button
• Click on OK
• Quit and restart Thunderbird
• Subscribe to our calendars (below)

Installing the Sunbird Calendar Application

• Download the Sunbird calendar application from http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/
• Install
• Start Sunbird up.
• Subscribe to our calendars (below)

Step 2 - Adding Calendars

Subscribing to (Adding) Our Online Calendars to Your Application

Now that you have an application on your computer that can capture shareable calendars and display them, you need to add some calendars - ours!

• Click on the the link to subscribe to the HUMS Calendar. You can edit the name and colour used to show the events.
• Click on this link to subscribe to the External Musical Events Calendar.
• Click on this link to subscribe to the UK Holidays calendar.

Other calendars are available at iCalShare

Hunts Post Article

Huntingdonshire Music School celebrates its 40th year next year. Over 400 musicians range from a guitarist, aged four to a sax player, aged 83. The school is one of Huntingdon’s best kept secrets. Report by ANGELA SINGER.

WHEN Derrick Baughan, aged 50, joined the woodwind ensemble at Hums - Huntingdonshire Music School - and sat down with his saxophone, the 12-year-old next to him said: “Don’t worry, don’t be nervous, everyone is when they start, it’ll be fine.”

The music school has 464 pupils The youngest is Max Sayer, from Papworth, a guitarist aged four and the oldest is Fred Cracknell from Upwood, a sax player aged 83. Fred is joined in the school by his son Vernon, 51, another saxophonist and two grandchildren Emillie, 12, on trumpet and Mariette, 11, on clarinet. He says: “I’ve been playing the saxophone since 1935. I played in all the local big bands including the Anglian Jazz Orchestra and the Priory Big Band in St Neots. I started playing at the music school when one of the teachers, who also played in the Priory Big Band brought me in because he needed a baritone sax. “I play in Hums to keep myself and my fingers going. I’ll play in any band that wants me. You need a mixture of experienced people, plus the younger people because they have the energy.”

The music school meets on Saturday mornings and weekday evenings at Huntingdonshire Regional College. Though director, Gary Seiling, an organist and harpsichord player, worries that “people don’t know we’re here” at the beginning of term last week, there were 78 messages on his voice mail, mostly from people wanting to become students.

Elvira, mum of Max, who will be five in November, said: “As a baby he enjoyed musical toys. His grandfather plays the accordian by ear and we had the impression that he had picked up that talent and we wanted to foster it. He chose the guitar because his dad is into that. It’s a good exercise for him to sit down and concentrate on the teacher and focus on one thing. He started in February when he was at pre-school and now he has started school it has all been helpful.” Max is one of 283 pupils under 16. There are 39 youngsters aged 16-18 and 142 over 19.

Says Sieling: “We are not short of students, Our fees are competitive, they include theory lessons in classes and there is plenty of scope for playing in ensembles and performance.” The ensembles include a swing band, two rock bands, three concert bands, an orchestra and junior string band. Sieling pledges that the school will teach any instrument. “If we don’t already have a teacher, we will find one.” Students are prepared for exams with over a 98 per cent pass rate of exams last year, with several distinctions and merits. Only one student failed an exam.

Despite it merits, the school was only just able to survive a recent funding crisis. In the midst of a national crisis in the funding of music education, Hums was obliged to increase its fees. To head off future financial trouble, Hums has formed Humsa, the Huntingdonshire Music School Association. The association is applying for charitable status so it can raise funds. Says Sieling: “We are now charging market rates and the music school is more secure than it was. If we get charitable status, it will attract extra funding to fight off further fee increases. Ideally we might even reduce them.

Humsa chairman is sax player, Derek Baughan, an engineering consultant from Brampton who says: “We want to form a pressure group and also raise awareness that we are here. It’s time we made a noise about our music.”

Source

Article Copyright Hunts Post :  published by the Hunts Post on 22nd September 2004.See Hunts Post website .

Background

Owen went to school at St Ivo and, as he said in his speech to us on our prize-giving day on May 21st 2006, he started cornet at HuMS but was “rubbish” at it so switched to percussion. His older brother Tim is also a percussionist, and now a professional. Owen played in local bands and also in Cambs County Youth Orchestra but he soon won a place in the National Youth Orchestra. He won the Percussion final of BBC young musician of the year in 2000.

He went to the Royal School of Music and graduated with first class honours in summer 2004.

Whilst at the Royal School of Music, Owen formed a percussion duo with fellow student Oli Cox. They called it “O Duo!” They first performed as ‘O Duo’ at St Martin in the Fields, London, in 2000. Together they won The Philip & Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists 2004.  Oli Cox also graduated with first class honours in summer 2004. They have performed their arrangement of the Vivaldi Double Violin Concerto in A minor several times in Britain, with orchestras including the Locrian Symphony Orchestra.

As well as this, between them, Owen and Oliver have been broadcast on Radio 3, BBC Scotland and BBC2, the latter broadcast being in the winning performance of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Percussion final in 2000. They have also made concerto appearances with the BBC Philharmonic and the Philharmonia orchestra.

They have appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2002 and 2003, being nominated ‘Pick of the Fringe’ both years and winning ‘Best Music Act of the Fringe, 2003’. The duo were also given a concert series by the Tunnell Trust in 2003.

The duo also holds several awards in music education and work regularly for London Musici and the Philharmonia.  They often combine their concerts with exciting and original workshops for people of all ages.

Awards

• BBC Young Musician Percussion winner 2000
• NYOS Staffa Award prize winner
• Pick of the Fringe 2002, 2003 and 2004
• Best Music Act of the Fringe 2003 and 2004
• Winner of the KPMG Music in the Community award with Batterie
• Winner of the Martin Musical Scholarship fund, in outreach and education
• Allianz Cornhill Music Award at the RCM
• Junior Fellow at the RCM 2004-

Links

• O Duo (Young Concert Artists Trust)
• BBC Young Musician of the Year, 2000
• Royal School of Music (Junior Fellowships, News)